1. Field of the General Inventive Concept
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present general inventive concept relate to an image forming apparatus, an e-mail server, an e-mail facsimile transmission system having the same, and an e-mail facsimile setting method of an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus transmitting an e-mail to at least one facsimile server of a plurality of different kinds of facsimile servers. The present general inventive concept also relates to an e-mail server, an e-mail facsimile transmission system having the same, and an e-mail facsimile setting method of an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus forms an image printed on a paper. The image forming apparatus may be implemented as a printer, an electronic copier, a facsimile, a multifunction device having at least two functions, etc.
Recently, as an office automation device such as a multifunction device performing functions of a scanner, a facsimile, etc. together as well as a printing function printing a document, the functionality demands of image forming apparatuses has increased. Accordingly, image forming apparatuses have been developed to have high performance and to expand performable inherent functions.
Accordingly, a facsimile service using an e-mail transmission function may be supplied to the image forming apparatus. The e-mail facsimile is a function in which the image forming apparatus uses an e-mail transmission protocol to transmit an e-mail to which facsimile data is attached and sent to a facsimile server, and the facsimile server receiving the e-mail converts this to a facsimile signal and transmits the facsimile signal to a facsimile apparatus.
However, to enable the facsimile server to recognize the received e-mail as a facsimile and to normally transmit a facsimile signal, it is necessary that the image forming apparatus transmits an e-mail to include a facsimile receiver information, that is, a facsimile number in different types depending on the kind (manufacturer) of the facsimile server.
For example, if transmitting an e-mail to a facsimile server manufactured by Dell company to use a facsimile, it is necessary for the image forming apparatus to make out the subject of the e-mail in a type like ‘DELL_FAX:Faxnumber_’ to normally recognize a receiver side facsimile number through the e-mail received in the facsimile server and to transmit the facsimile.
Also, in a case of a facsimile server manufactured by Captaris company, it is necessary for the image forming apparatus to make out the receiver (To) of the e-mail in a type like ‘FAX:Name@FaxNumber’ or ‘RFAX:Name@/FN=FaxNumber’ to enable a normal facsimile transmission in the facsimile server.
In this manner, to allow the image forming apparatus to use the e-mail facsimile function, it is necessary to know the kind (manufacturer) of a facsimile server to which an e-mail is transmitted, in order to develop a solution to correspond to the kind of the facsimile server, and to set up an e-mail facsimile environment to correspond to the facsimile server by a program.
However, if the e-mail facsimile is set by the programming, a lot of time and cost are needed in a program setup process, and resetting the programming process by is necessary to change the kind of a facsimile server to be used, thereby causing a user inconvenience.
Also, as necessary, an e-mail facsimile type in which an e-mail server installed with an application allowing a facsimile number addition to correspond to the kind of a facsimile server receiving an e-mail is separately provided, and the e-mail server must re-transmit an e-mail transmitted in the image forming apparatus to the facsimile server. However, in case of separately providing this e-mail server, cost and time are additionally needed.